Industry experts feel that a number of technologies are maturing and will likely continue to grow incrementally in market share. These include, in addition to the shift from mechanical to electronic locks that has been in progress over the past decade, NFC, biometrics, and PoE and wireless systems.
Product Trends
Industry experts feel that a number of technologies are maturing and will likely continue to grow incrementally in market share. These include, in addition to the shift from mechanical to electronic locks that has been in progress over the past decade, NFC, biometrics, and PoE and wireless systems. Furthermore, the development of open standards will surely have an impact on the access control landscape. Standardization is definitely in the books, with both ONVIF and PSIA announcing actions in this direction. ONVIF announced a specification to enable interoperability between clients and devices of physical access control in August. Meanwhile, in September, PSIA announced the launching of a Physical-Logical Access Interoperability Working Group to synchronize the two spheres.
Mechanical to Electronic
The shift from mechanical locks to electronic access control continues to drive the market.
Electronic access control systems have overcome the shortcomings of traditional mechanical access control systems. However, this convenience in access control also comes with new threats, such as intrusions via forged documents, tailgating, and identity theft.
This technological shift is reflected in Assa Abloy's strategy. “We've put a lot of emphasis in the last years on our electrical mechanical business. Consequently, we're grown dramatically in that area of the business in the last few years, and it now represents some 26 percent of our overall business in EMEA,” noted Bone.
“That's a market area that is growing, much faster, compared to the traditional mechanical area. For the existing established markets in Western Europe, there may be a lot less green field construction, but there is a lot of refurbishments going on. In Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia, there are a lot of new construction projects that we are benefiting from,” added Bone.
NFC
A definite trend, mobile device enabled applications continue to seep Security solutions at high-risk locations need to evolve and persevere in a digital era. into the access control product offerings in the market. The proliferation of smart devices will continue to popularize NFC and mobile technology.
While NFC technology has been around for a decade, it is in 2012 that the industry laid the foundation for mobile access control deployment on NFC-enabled mobile devices. However, industry experts have noted that is unlikely that NFC-enabled smartphones will completely replace physical smart cards in the near future; instead, mobile access control solutions will coexist with cards. Nevertheless, a key benefit of NFC-enabled mobile access control is the ability to fuse logical and physical access control through embedding credentials in a smartphone.
In line with this trend, several manufacturers are boarding the NFC ship accordingly. TDSi, for example, is rolling out NFC compatible readers in 2014. “It is very clear that many end users want to use their mobile device for security access and the whole industry needs to take note of this,” said Davies.
Universities are likely to be early adopters of NFC-enabled access control. Unlike hotels where there is high turnover of guests staying for a relatively short period of time, universities are more of a closed environment, in that you know how many students there are and who they are. Hence, despite the large population, you can allocate access rights to each student for a term/semester and there will be relatively few changes thereafter, mentioned a source from Ingersoll Rand Security Technologies.
Wireless Locks
Wireless locks are also being deployed in the US residential market and manufacturers are optimistic about the future of wireless locks for homes. Wireless locks offer increased situational awareness and better management ability, noted an access control provider.
The retrofit fit market is offering plenty of opportunities for wireless access control. It is estimated that up to 70% of electronic locking systems now incorporate wireless products, which reduce installation time by up to 50 percent, and system costs by up to 25%. Verticals like healthcare can also benefit greatly from wireless solutions because of the importance of access control to sensitive data and locations cannot be compromised even if budgets are tight.
In line with this trend, Assa Abloy is seeing high double-digit growth for its wireless lock with radio technology. The combination of wireless and radio technology enables the end user to easily integrate security doors into an access control system at a reasonable price. Once integrated, access authorizations are manageable online and in real time.
.jpg)
Biometrics
According to a report by ASD Reports, the global biometrics market is expected to reach $10 billion by 2014.
The government sector is leading the adoption of biometric applications used in national identity, electronic passport, or border control projects. Large enterprises and healthcare facilities have also adopted biometric technology for logical and physical access control applications to better secure their assets. In the near future, it is anticipated that social networking sites will use biometrics for authentication.
Mobile devices are starting to incorporate biometrics for access control as well — Apple's iPhone 5s is an example. Hence, mobile-based biometrics is also forecasted to perform well in the next five years, with both the FBI and UK police force expected to be equipped with mobile-based identity solutions.
Finally, access control cards are also beginning to include biometric and other multifactor authentication information to enhance identity validation.
Currently, fingerprint is the most commonly adopted form of biometrics, but face recognition will most likely become its successor in the years to come. Increased implementations of face recognition technology stem from its enhanced accuracy, as well as its contactless, noninvasive nature when capturing and recognizing an individual.
Logical and Physical Convergence
With the number of devices connected to the Internet surpassing the 5 billion milestone in 2010 and expected to reach 22 billion by 2020, fusing physical and logical access control becomes a necessity if security is to be maintained sufficiently.
With the growing popularity of online banking, logical access control is now an important infrastructure for banks and financial institutions. For instance, in the U.K. alone, online banking losses rose from $37.6 million in 2005 to almost $96.7 million in 2009. Meanwhile, phishing attacks, where customers are led to fake bank websites via an email that appears legitimate rose from 1,700 to 51,000 in the same period. Moreover, these threats could originate from any corner of the world with an internet connection. The recent arrest of eight men in connection with a reported $2 million robbery at a UK bank was allegedly accomplished by compromising both the bank's physical and logical security. Consequently, enterprises should note that rimes are highly organized and evolving rapidly, making it crucial that logical and physical security are prioritized equally.
Regulation and standardization will make convergence a reality. In the current market, unfortunately, proprietary systems are impeding complete integration. Furthermore, the access control industry is not as tightly regulated, in contrast to the intruder and fire industries. However, with the announcement of an access control standard by ONVIF and PSIA, will likely change that.
Clear Skies Ahead
To conclude, 2013 has been a solid year for access control companies and the year ahead promises to be more or less stable. The industry will continue to expand on current marketing strategies, while promoting the uptake of new technology. Furthermore, access control hardware is becoming a commodity. "This is on one side driven by initiatives for open standards (PSIA, IEC, OSDP, SOAA), and on the other side by pressure on prices from the market. Following this development, we can conclude that, in the near future, the difference will be in software. This includes not only server software applications, but also software functionalities on the controller level,” said Arjun Bouter, Sales Director of Nedap Security Management.
2013 Security50 access control(2-1): Standardization hits industry
2013 Top Security50
